Shadyac, who also directed the low-IQ comedies “Bruce Almighty” and “Liar Liar,” made bazillions on such tripe before a concussion in a biking accident caused severe depression and self-doubt, but didn’t make him any better a filmmaker. Assembling stock footage, animation and interviews with such talking heads as Desmond Tutu and Noam Chomsky, he seeks answers to why money didn’t buy him happiness. A jumble of pseudoscientific New Age gobbledygook gives him the answer he craves: that humanity is about interconnection, empathy and cooperation, not ruthless capitalism and competition.

At the end, as Shadyac proclaims, “I stopped flying privately” (well, hurrah for you, Mahatma), renounces his Pasadena mansion and moves into a trailer park, the results of his epiphany grow funnier than any of his movies.

We’ll see how far any of his actions go toward alleviating the despair he feels about homelessness, poverty and war. As for his implicit advice to be excellent to each other, I already learned that from two superior comedy philosophers: Bill and Ted.